Lecture 7: Cheap(er) food!
Our student allowances don’t allow much room for fancy food, so here are some tips on where to get the cheapest food in town.
Fruit and Veges: Supermarkets are OK for this sort of stuff – only if there are specials on. Otherwise, your local fruit and vegetable store will usually be the cheapest. If you live in Hillcrest, the Magic Fresh down by the Warehouse will be where you would want to go.
Meat: Butchers are seriously the cheapest place to go for meat. At supermarkets a lot of the time you’re paying for the pretty display. Also, the more meat you get, the cheaper it will work out to be, so buy bulk and freeze what you won’t eat that night.
Other essentials: Milk, bread, butter, snacks etc. are the cheapest from the supermarkets. Avoid dairies and petrol stations for this stuff; you’ll probably be paying around twice the amount that you would pay at the supermarket.
Takeaways: Can’t be arsed cooking? Obviously, Fish and Chips are the cheapest takeaways; back in the day ‘$2 chip’ would feed a whole family, now it would hardly feed one person. Mei Wah on Knighton road is OK if you live on that side of the Uni, or Hsin Hsin Takeaways is good if you live closer to Grey St. Double K Takeaways on Peachgrove Rd is the best and cheapest fish and chips I’ve seen in Hamilton for a long time. Their $4 pack includes a cheeseburger, a sausage, 2 potato fritters, and $1 chips. Awesome.
Dining out: If you’re feeling flash but are still poor, Genghis Kahn on Vic St is an all-you-can-eat, BYO buffet for $20 – the food’s good and, for a buffet, it’s pretty cheap. Breakers, down the road from Genghis Kahn, is also very affordable and they have yummy food full of goodness.